Sounders-Timbers: A reader’s plea for fan civility to avoid violence

Portland Timbers fans watch the Sounders-Timbers game Sunday at CenturyLink Field.Bettina Hansen / The Seattle Times

Sounders-Timbers

Portland fans make
game long nightmare

My 9-year-old daughter and I were lucky enough to get tickets to the Sounders-Timbers game at CenturyLink Field. Our tickets were beside the Portland Army, which beat a drum without end. The vitriol and immaturity, lack of respect, language, police presence, abuse and ceaseless noise made our experience a long, expensive nightmare. They sang song after song. It was a drunken kindergarten. One song included the repeated chorus: “I hate Seattle!” Another song’s verse included: (bleep) Seattle!” and “(bleep) you!”

Several kids around us were flipping off the Portland fans, and the naked anger was overwhelming. Ultimately we had to leave our seats. The rabble seems fueled by a history of I-5 visits from both fan groups. I’m sure Sounders bozos have embarrassed my town and me as much as the Timbers’ circus.

The real fans, who like watching soccer, should step up and put pressure on the Sounders and Timbers organizations to take a role in civilizing fan behavior. It is an incendiary environment, and it will blow up despite beefed-up police presence and vigilant security. We need to do this not only for our spectator experience but to prevent a violent incident.

— Timothy Scollard, Edmonds

Mariners

It’s Tulowitzki
time for team

After the All-Star break is when really good teams start to bear down and separate themselves from the wishful thinkers and carnival hucksters. The Mariners pitching will likely hold up, but the offense is still marginal. If you can’t be any better than second from the bottom in American League in offense despite Robinson Cano’s .334 batting average and Kyle Seager’s gutsy consistency, you’ve got a problem.

We need a big right-handed bat now. Remember when Lou Piniella was in the same predicament? Mariners execs never gave him one, so he left. We don’t need any more washed-up veterans. We don’t need any more reclamation projects. The Corey Harts and Logan Morrisons just won’t do it. We need a bona-fide right-handed star as a complement to Cano.

So, I have just two words if Colorado decides to cut bait: Troy Tulowitzki. Expensive? You bet! The fundamental question: Are the Mariners serious or not?

— Bill Viertel, Coupeville

Reunite Corey
Seager with Kyle

It’s time to talk about picking up Kyle Seager’s little brother, Corey. The Mariners need a long-term shortstop, and Corey is tearing up the Class A California League as a shortstop. Entering the All-Star break, he was hitting .352 with an on base-plus-slugging percentage of 1.044. He has made 12 errors in 353 chances. He is also 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds.

Big brother Kyle went to the All-Star Game and little brother Corey to the Futures Game. Can you imagine how hard Corey would try to play next to Kyle if he were in a Mariners uniform?
Anyone else see a long term fix here?

— Don Rogers, Camano Island

LeBron James

Only one thing
left to prove

Now that LeBron James has returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers after an absence of four years after being pursued by nearly every NBA team peace has returned to Northern Ohio. James has won two NBA titles and four MVP awards, so he doesn’t have much more to prove. But winning a championship in his home state would be gratifying, with the last championship of a major pro sport in Cleveland 50 years ago.

— Kenneth L. Zimmerman, Huntington Beach, Calif.

Storm

End decline by
changing coaches

The Storm had been a more interesting sports team than the Mariners in the past few years. Yet during the last two years Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird played together, they could not carry the team by themselves, and the WNBA team’s decline began. Things continue to deteriorate. The organization should seriously consider a coaching change.

— Paul Parker Jr., Neah Bay

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Want to be a reader contributor to The Seattle Times’ Take 2 blog? Email your original, previously unpublished work or proposal to Sports Editor Don Shelton at dshelton@seattletimes.com or sports@seattletimes.com. Not all submissions can be published. Opinions expressed are those of authors, and The Times reserves the right to edit and publish any submissions online and/or in print.

Have something to say?

Want to be a reader contributor to The Seattle Times’ Take 2 blog? Email your original, previously unpublished work or proposal to Sports Editor Don Shelton at dshelton@seattletimes.com or sports@seattletimes.com. Not all submissions can be published. The Times reserves the right to edit and publish any submissions online and/or in print.